Re: Addressing Puberty and hands-in-pants

[Guest guest]

Jill, thank you so much for this insight and method. My son is just turning 12 and so far no signs of puberty but we have noticed a few times at home lately he will be "exploring". My son is able to spend a lot of independent time alone playing in his room , so hopefully it will be easy for him to have privacy with this behavior Sent from the KFree iPhoneOn Jan 31, 2011, at 8:17 PM, Pat <pkuenstler@...> wrote:

Jill; it is a very appropriate subject. We have taught Karac to go to

his room too, and it works very well. Karac is 18. Pat K

Addressing Puberty and hands-in-pants

Well I'm a little nervous addressing this one because some of you may

freak out. And frankly I feel really awkward. It's something I never

dreamed I would have to deal with when I had children or even when my

son was diagnosed at age 2. My son now is 15 yo. At around age 13, he

started putting his hands in his pants a lot. We had been working on

reducing that behavior with no results.

Finally the ABA consultant recommended a private time program. The idea

is to teach your teen that you can request and go to your bedroom to be

alone. And as long as you're not destructive, you can often have time

alone in your room (many of our kids are never alone). Also there's

things you can do in your bedroom when you are alone that is OK.... but

these things can only be done here.

My son is significantly challenged but the consultant had a very

systematic way to teach private time. It included him putting a sign on

the outside of his door (to remind us) and on the inside of the door

(to remind him). We could and did establish boundaries around it....

which is very necessary. I only had to make a couple modifications to

the program but after several months, he was fully trained.

Now he still sometimes puts his hands in his pants to adjust himself

(working on this) but the more extreme behavior is completely gone. And

interestedly, once he learned to successfully relieve himself, his

anxiety dropped dramatically and he overall became more happy and less

aggressive. Now a year later, he requests private time on average 1-2

times per day. Since it's mastered, we say yes only during free time...

never during therapy or school.

My son's staff asked their husbands and ALL the men said this is

something most early-teen boys do as often as possible. The women were

all were Shocked. I know. It's something no mother wants to deal with

or even think about. But the alternative (masturbation in public) was

much much worse. And believe me, he's behaving much more appropriately

in this area than most of his Autistic peers in his ABA middle school

classrom.

I think a well-written social story would work for kids with enough

language. But for our language-challenged kids, this program works. If

you want more details on how to teach this program, email me

separately. I apologize if anyone is upset with this topic.

Jill

>

> My son's self talk and inattentiveness has increased. got note from

teacher today. I was fortunate to have someone make a weighted blanket

for me that is adult size. I used it last night and self talk and vocal

stimming subsided. He's going through hormone changes because I see

increased growth of hair on his face and his shoe size has changed.

Need to talk to neurodevelopmental pediatrician--correct?

>

[Guest guest]

Please don't apologize for posting this, it's entirely appropriate and something

we all are or will face. I'm going through it right now with my almost 17 year

old son. I just recently heard of teaching the private/public method. What did

you do, make him go to his room, or just tell him that he should go to his room

stressing the public/private aspect? I had minimal success so far, I did

however come up with code words to use with him for this and for when his

pants/bathing suit are hanging so low, his butt is exposed (a too frequent event

unfortunatley). He knows that when we say " BC " (for butt cover) it means for

him to pull up the back of his pants and now he knows " hoop " means hands out of

pants. It helps when we're out in public so he's not embarrassed and it doesn't

draw attention to him.

> >

> > My son's self talk and inattentiveness has increased. got note from teacher

today. I was fortunate to have someone make a weighted blanket for me that is

adult size. I used it last night and self talk and vocal stimming subsided.

He's going through hormone changes because I see increased growth of hair on his

face and his shoe size has changed. Need to talk to neurodevelopmental

pediatrician--correct?

> >

>